PPP's newest national poll find that although Donald Trump is a little bit more popular than he was during the campaign, a majority of Americans still have a negative opinion of him. 43% of voters view Trump favorably to 51% who have an unfavorable view of him. On PPP's last national poll, in late September, Trump's favorability rating stood at 39/55. Trump's popularity continues to pale in comparison to Barack Obama's. Obama ends his final year in office with a 50/45 approval spread. When it comes to the question of who voters trust more to pick the new Supreme Court justice, Obama beats out Trump 52-45.

Voters don't think that Trump's Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote is really fair- 50% think the candidate who receives the most votes nationally in the election should become President, to only 37% who disagree with that concept. Over the course of the campaign we found there was a cult like aspect to Trump's support, where any idea he put forth a substantial share of his supporters would go along with. We see that trend continuing post election. 60% of Trump voters think that Hillary Clinton received millions of illegal votes to only 18% who disagree with that concept and 22% who aren't sure either way. A couple other findings related to the vote in this year's election:

-40% of Trump voters insist that he won the national popular vote to only 49% who grant that Clinton won it and 11% who aren't sure.

-Only 53% of Trump voters think that California's votes should be allowed to count in the national popular vote. 29% don't think they should be allowed to count, and another 18% are unsure.

"This has been a very tough election. It's been ugly, it's been divisive, it's been coarse, it's been dispiriting. And it was more a battle of personalities than it was a battle of ideas in my view," Biden told a crowd at a post-election forum convened by New York University in Washington. "I find myself embarrassed by the nature of the way in which this campaign was conducted," he said. "So much for the shining city on the hill," he said.

In his talk, Biden characterized the election as devoid of policy or discussions of governance.
"Why wasn't there more discussion?" he asked. "Hillary Clinton was the single most qualified on the fact of it to run for president of the United States that we've had, period. It wasn't that she didn't have all these ideas. She did. But the press, you didn't cover it."

But he said it was understandable the media would forgo stories about each candidate's position on the issues for more salacious reporting. "It wasn't your fault," he said. "When a guy talks about grabbing a woman's private parts, when a guy says some of the incredibly outrageous things that were said, it sucks up all the oxygen in the air."

Trump's walking back his "immediately terminate" pledge on DACA, which is angering Republicans

ERICA WERNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

THURSDAY, DEC 8, 2016 01:45 PM EST

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s new promise to “work something out” for young immigrants is dividing fellow Republicans, underscoring how difficult it will be for Congress to take any action on immigration, whether it’s building a wall or dealing with immigrant youths.

During the campaign Trump pledged to “immediately terminate” President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration, including the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, which has extended work permits and temporary deportation relief to more than 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to this country as youths. But in an interview in Time magazine, Trump adopted a far more sympathetic tone toward the young immigrants known to their supporters as “Dreamers.”

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump said. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.” Trump did not offer details, and Time said that he did not back off his pledge to undo Obama’s executive actions.

Republicans who’ve supported congressional action to help immigrant youths welcomed Trump’s new tone. “I can tell you I’m very relieved at his comments today and I think folks back home in my district and across the country are going to be very relieved as well,” said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado. “Obviously Dreamers is one part of the equation, I clearly hope we do more. But I think that’s got to be the top priority.”

Republicans in Congress ignored Trump's calls to "buy American" steel and iron for water infrastructure projects

SOPHIA TESFAYE

In his 2009 economic stimulus package, President Obama included a “Buy America” provision that required only that the government spend funds in ways that do not violate U.S. trade agreements. While campaigning on his brand of populism this year, president-elect Donald Trump repeatedly promised to “Make America Great Again” with protectionist trade policies that would bring back American manufacturing jobs to America.

Now weeks into his transition, Trump is keeping up that fiery message — even as his Republican allies on the Hill prepare to vote against specific “Buy America” legislation meant to help American workers.

At a one of his victory rallies last week in Cincinnati, Trump told the crowd, “We will have two simple rules when it comes to this massive rebuilding effort: Buy American and hire American. Whether it is producing steel, building cars or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America and right here in Ohio, right?” But Republicans in Congress, apparently ready to buck their party’s leader, only days later announced that they were removing the “Buy America” amendment from a water infrastructure bill that would require the government to only fund projects that use American-made steel. The provision would have allowed for exceptions if American steel had quality or supply problems or drove up costs substantially.

Ignoring Trump’s demand that the government find ways to support U.S. manufacturers, particularly the steel industry, House Republicans stripped the Senate-passed version of the Water Resources Development Act — an infrastructure spending bill on the country’s waterways — of its “Buy America” provision before passing the bill earlier this week.

Considering how the Republican Party has fallen in line behind Donald Trump over the last few months, does anyone seriously think that this will ever amount to anything? The Chicago Tribune recently reported on Thursday:

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. . . . agreed that House and Senate committees must keep close tabs on Donald Trump’s new government starting next year — not because they want to stick it to a man that neither originally endorsed for president, but because doing so would help rebalance power between the three branches of government.

Sure thing. And I’ve got a bridge over the Potomac to sell you.

Of course there are many, many reasons for strict oversight of the Trump administration. If anything has been made clear by the four weeks of the transition period, it is that this White House will be awash in so many conflicts of interest with Trump family businesses, so much corruption and grift and influence peddling, it will make Warren G. Harding’s presidency look like a model of moral rectitude. But Trump has already made it clear that either he does not see why his burgeoning kleptocracy is a problem or he does not care. Moreover, the rest of the Republican Party has all but said outright that it is completely fine with the Trump White House being awash in filth so long as he signs whatever bills are slapped in front of him.

"Does it really help if Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job?" Puzder argued in a March interview

BRENDAN GAUTHIER

Donald Trump’s cabinet is set to draft another villainous job creator, Andy Puzder, as its secretary of labor.

The CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. parent company CKE Restaurants, Puzder is a staunch opponent of a federal minimum wage increase — views he expressed in a March interview with Business Insider about automated restaurants, “where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person.”

“With government driving up the cost of labor, it’s driving down the number of jobs,” he whined. “You’re going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants.”

“This is the problem with Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton and progressives who push very hard to raise the minimum wage,” he added. “Does it really help if Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job?” To build on his dystopian hypothetical: If Andy makes 291 times more than Sally — let’s call it $4.458 million in 2012 — what thread count must his sheets be for him to be able to sleep at night knowing that Suzie’s out of a job?

A must-pass spending bill hit a snag Thursday as some Senate Democrats are banding together to vote against the legislation unless a year-long protection for miners health care benefits is included.

The continuing resolution to fund the federal government until the end of April was expected to easily pass the House of Representatives Thursday as members were anxious to skip town and get back home for the holidays, but the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

The hold-up is over health care benefits for retired miners. The benefits help more than 20,000 coal miners and their widows. The current continuing resolution includes just a four-month extension of those benefits, and Democrats want to see more.

According to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Democrats left a caucus meeting Thursday afternoon in agreement that they would stand against any spending bill that did not include an extension of the benefits for at least a year.

A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump's request to throw out a lawsuit against his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, allowing the case to proceed as Trump prepares to take office in January, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Members of the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa, which Trump bought and turned into the National Golf Club, filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2013, accusing him of canceling their memberships without refunding their deposits to the old club. The Ritz club had a policy of refunding deposits. But when Trump let members join his new club, he cancelled their old memberships and did not return their deposits, according to court documents reviewed by the Palm Beach Post.

A judge gave the lawsuit class action status last year, expanding the number of plaintiffs in the case to 100, according to the Palm Beach Post. Eric Trump downplayed the suit last year, predicting that the Trumps would "win in a landslide."

Trump last month settled his high-profile Trump University lawsuit. He paid $25 million for former students who accused the unaccredited school of pushing them to spend thousands but failing to deliver on the promise to teach students how to make profitable real estate deals.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that plans to overhaul Medicare remain “unresolved” in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration. “We haven’t addressed that. That’s an unresolved issue. I haven’t even spoke with the president-elect about that,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in a Monday interview.

The House speaker has for years proposed radical reforms to Medicare that involve replacing the current system with private health insurance supported in part by government subsidies.

A number of Republican House lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, have called on Congress to move quickly on Medicare privatization now that the GOP has control of the House, Senate and White House. Some GOP senators have expressed reservations, however.

Ryan suggested he has no plan of dropping the issue but that the timing and method for taking on Medicare is not yet decided.

Ryan: Obamacare 'Transition' Will Take Time To Make Sure 'No One Is Worse Off'

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) acknowledged Monday that the GOP’s long-held goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare would take time and involve some kind of “transition" to ensure that Americans are not “worse off” after President Barack Obama’s signature health care program is dismantled.

“Clearly there will be a transition and a bridge so that no one is left out in the cold, so that no one is worse off,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The purpose here is to bring relief to people who are suffering from Obamacare so that they can get something better.”

The House Speaker recently listed addressing Obamacare as one of his top four priorities for the new Congress, but his comments to the Journal-Sentinel suggest that replacing this complex legislation may not be done quickly.

“It will clearly take time. It took them about six years to stand up Obamacare. It’s not going to be replaced come next football season,” Ryan said.